A Review of Global Radioxenon Background Research and Issues

Bowyer, Theodore W.

doi:10.1007/s00024-020-02440-0

Cited by 24 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…The detection of trace concentrations of Xe has seen an increased interest in nuclear safety and security [1,2]. For example, Xe can be traced as an indicator of fuel failure in light water reactors for off-gas sensing in molten salt reactors [3] and as an early indicator of fuel failure in the coolant loop of the proposed generation IV gas-cooled fast reactors (GCFRs) [4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrafast Laser-Excited Optical Emission of Xe under Loose-Focusing Conditions

Burger,

Latty,

Frigerio

et al. 2023

Sensors

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The optical filament-based radioxenon sensing can potentially overcome the constraints of conventional detection techniques that are relevant for nuclear security applications. This study investigates the spectral signatures of pure xenon (Xe) when excited by ultrafast laser filaments at near-atmosphericpressure and in short and loose-focusing conditions. The two focusing conditions lead to laser intensity differences of several orders of magnitude and different plasma transient behavior. The gaseous sample was excited at atmospheric pressure using ∼7 mJ pulses with a 35 fs pulse duration at 800 nm wavelength. The optical signatures were studied by time-resolved spectrometry and imaging in orthogonal light collection configurations in the ∼400 nm (VIS) and ∼800 nm (NIR) spectral regions. The most prominent spectral lines of atomic Xe are observable in both focusing conditions. An on-axis light collection from an atmospheric air–Xe plasma mixture demonstrates the potential of femtosecond filamentation for the remote sensing of noble gases.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ultrafast Laser-Excited Optical Emission of Xe under Loose-Focusing Conditions

Burger,

Latty,

Frigerio

et al. 2023

Sensors

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“…For example, there is an increasing interest in developing air separation processes to collect xenon from the atmosphere for large‐scale physics experiments [ 1 ] . Air separation processes are also a vital part of radioxenon monitoring systems used in the International Monitoring System for detecting nuclear explosions [ 2 ] . The work presented here is motivated by the desire to develop small energy‐efficient air separation equipment that can be used to produce pure gasses from the atmosphere including oxygen, nitrogen, argon, and xenon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Additively manufactured cryogenic microchannel distillation device for air separation

Bottenus

Humble

Burnett

et al. 2022

J Adv Manuf & Process

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The efficiency of air separation is tested using three different small-scale cryogenic distillation columns. The performance of a random packed column is compared to the performance of two microchannel distillation (MCD) columns that use thin wicking structures and gas flow channels to achieve process intensification. The MCD columns tested include a plate-type layered column and an additively manufactured porous honeycomb (AMPH) column. For columns with 25.4 cm of active height and run under similar conditions, the packed, plate-type layering, and AMPH columns achieved approximate height equivalent of a theoretical plate (HETP) values of 5.5, 3.7, and 3.2 cm for nitrogen, and 5.9, 4.9, and 3.3 cm for argon. The AMPH column can produce up to 0.4 SLM of more than 90% purity oxygen with 12 W of cooling lift. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using additive manufacturing to construct MCD devices and pave a way for constructing novel MCD designs.

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“…Pistner 2006; Kalinowski et al 2010;Saey et al 2010;Kalinowski 2011;Galan et al 2018). Because of their suitable half-lives, these xenon isotopes have reasonable signal strength with low background concentrations (Saey et al 2010;Sloan et al 2016;Bowyer 2020). In addition to radioactive xenons, stable xenons produced from the decay and ingrowth reactions have also been used for recovering underground-nuclear-explosion (UNE) sourceterm activities (Aregbe et al 1997;Cassata et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Closed-form Solution for Source-term Emission of Xenon Isotopes from Underground Nuclear Explosions

et al. 2021

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Isotopic ratios of radioactive xenons sampled in the subsurface and atmosphere can be used to detect underground nuclear explosions (UNEs) and civilian nuclear reactors. Disparities in the half-lives of the radioactive decay chains are principally responsible for time-dependent concentrations of xenon isotopes. Contrasting timescales, combined with modern detection capabilities, make the xenon isotopic family a desirable surrogate for UNE detection. However, without including the physical details of post-detonation cavity changes that affect radioxenon evolution and subsurface transport, a UNE is treated as an idealized system that is both closed and well mixed for estimating xenon isotopic ratios and their correlations so that the spatially dependent behavior of xenon production, cavity leakage, and transport are overlooked. In this paper, we developed a multi-compartment model with radioactive decay and interactions between compartments. The model does not require the detailed domain geometry and parameterization that is normally needed by high-fidelity computer simulations, but can represent nuclide evolution within a compartment and migration among compartments under certain conditions. The closed-form solution to all nuclides in the series 131–136 is derived using analytical singular-value decomposition. The solution is further used to express xenon ratios as functions of time and compartment position.

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A Review of Global Radioxenon Background Research and Issues

Cited by 24 publications

References 66 publications

Ultrafast Laser-Excited Optical Emission of Xe under Loose-Focusing Conditions

Ultrafast Laser-Excited Optical Emission of Xe under Loose-Focusing Conditions

Additively manufactured cryogenic microchannel distillation device for air separation

A Closed-form Solution for Source-term Emission of Xenon Isotopes from Underground Nuclear Explosions

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